Originally released in 1971,
Ame Debout was
Catherine Ribeiro's third album and the first that she recorded for the Philips label.
Ribeiro's often harsh voice evokes both pain and hope, while the group les Alpes backs her with an odd sort of progressive cosmic folk, with spacy guitar and keyboards and a pulsing bongo beat on some tracks. They turn up the energy on the spirited title track that opens the record, while "Diborowska" mellows out a bit, a flowing French neo-folk song that sounds similar to
Brigitte Fontaine, but with a darker melancholic sound because of
Ribeiro's deeper voice.
Ribeiro sits out the next three tracks to let the group show its stuff. On "Aria Populaire,"
Ribeiro sings wordlessly over a strumming guitar, a simple but effective piece. "Kleenex, le Drap de Lit et l'Etendard" is the slowest piece on the record, as
Ribeiro croons over a droning organ dirge, reminiscent of some of
Nico's early stuff. "Dingues" ends the record with
Ribeiro bouncing words around a steady and rollicking acoustic guitar lick for another odd dark folk melody in the
Fontaine vein. ~ Rolf Semprebon